​Sometimes you find yourself with too many eggs to use before they spoil. Maybe there was a great sale, or your hens have been overly prolific in laying or you bought a dozen forgetting that you already had a couple dozen. Regardless of how it happened, it does happen. What do you do ?
​

The barnwood look is so popular right now, it is used in crafts, in home decor in furniture and much more! The only problem is that now that everyone wants it, of course, the price has skyrocketed! Even the people with barns that are falling down want big money for the wood, even if you remove it yourself! However, there is a very easy way to make new wook look gray and weathered like barnwood. You won't believe how easy it is!
​

If you really love laundry that smells great, you have probably already tried store bought laundry scent boosters like Unstoppables. While they don't do anything towards making your clothes cleaner, they do make your laundry smell wonderful! The downside is they are pretty expensive and I have often wondered exactly what is in them. Most all commercially made laundry products are usually full of all kinds of chemicals and artificial scents. Manufacturers are not required to put all the ingredients on the label, reading labels will not help you. The best way to deal with this problem is to make your own.....it is so easy you will not believe it!!

​Over the last few years, I have found myself using tortillas more and more. I use them instead of bread for sandwiches. (otherwise known as "wraps") I toast them in a bowl shape and put salad in them. Of course there are tons of Mexican food applications like soft tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, etc. I have also toasted them in triangles for a crunchy snack, either with salt or with cinnamon sugar. Their uses are endless! But, as always with stuff that is good, they are not that cheap, so I decided to learn to make my own. I was shocked at how simple it was.
​

​If you use hand sanitizer on a regular basis, it can get to be rather expensive. Why buy it, when you can easily make it?

Have you ever looked at the ingredients on store bought hand sanitizer? Do you have any idea what most of the ingredients are? I don't! Do you really want to put that stuff on your skin on a regular basis, not knowing what chemicals and preservatives they throw in with the goal of a long shelf life being more important to them than the health and safety of your family's skin ? Not to mention that some companies still test sanitizer on animals, a practice I would never want to support. Make your own, it's better in every way.

Today​ I want to share with you one of my favorite Mexican dips. Many of you will be attending or giving a Super Bowl party soon and you will want to include this dip in your menu. Trust me, it will be a huge hit with the spicy crowd!

Why would you want to wrap gifts without bows, you ask? Well, there are several reasons, but why I had to do it was because I have a feisty 10 month old orange kitten that simply won't leave bows alone. So unless I want a bunch of bedraggled, ripped and toothmarked Christmas bows, I had to go another route. Another reason would be to save money. Ribbon is expensive, even bags of premade bows are as inexpensive as they used to be. Going without bows saves money! A third reason is that it is impossible to stack gifts for transport if they have bows on them. You can try, but I guarantee by the time you get them to the desired location, they bows will be mashed, ripped or missing completely. Do yourself a favor and go bowless! With a little ingenuity and glue, you will have gorgeous packages and the recipients will be amazed!​

​​It's getting to be that time of year. Cold, snowy and just a difficult time for our fine feathered friends outside. I imagine it's hard for a bird to find food during winter with no plants blooming and no worms spending much time on the surface of the ground. Having snow on the ground would make it even harder. This is why I always keep my bird feeders full during cold weather. When I have time, I even make little bird cakes to hang on the trees. They love them and the fat they are made with helps keep the birds plump and well insulated from the cold. I have four recipes that I like to use to make my bird cakes. They are all easy and pretty quick to make. Making them is a great family activity, perfect for the holidays.​

​If you are like many households, you are drowning in candy after Halloween. Whether it's from your children's haul or left overs because you bought to much or didn't have many kids, you look at all that chocolate and think "what am I going to do with all this?" Well, I have a great idea for what you can do with all that chocolate candy, though I have to confess, it's NOT any less fattening, it's creative, pretty and really delicious!​

​Everyone that cooks has had that moment when you are making a dish and realize that you don't have one of the ingredients. You have two choices: pack yourself off to the store and get it (not a great choice for me as the closest grocery store is at least 10 miles away) or you can try to make due with a substitute, not knowing how it will make your dish turn out or taste. Neither solution is ideal. What if I told you that sometimes there is a third option?